An Attic Black-Figured Neck-Amphora

Attributed to the Circle of the Antimenes Painter, Circa 530-520 B.C.

Height 15 3/4 inches (40 cm).

Property from a Private New England Collection

Provenance:

Private Collection, Canada.

Sotheby's, New York, Fine Antiquities, 20 May 1982, Lot 92A.

Sotheby's, New York, Fine Antiquities, Islamic Works of Art, and Oriental Miniatures and Manuscripts, 2-3 December 1982, Lot 125.

This well-proportioned neck-amphora beautifully embodies the high drama of its subject matter. Side A depicts Hercules, draped in the Nemean lion skin, towering over the fallen Amazonian Queen Hippolyta whose sacred girdle is the object of his ninth labor. In this moment of intense drama, an Amazon warrior levels her spear while another approaches to aid their fallen queen. The deep shoulder of this finely ovoid vessel allowed the painter to elongate the scene, tightening the composition and amplifying its drama. The overlapping of each figure carefully creates a three-dimensional space otherwise not found in the crowed surface of the vessel. Side B echoes this heroic scene with three combatants in Corinthian helmets flanked vertically by carefully drawn ornamental friezes.

The vessel is attributed to the circle of the Antimenes Painter (active c. 530-510 B.C.), whose subjects ranged from lighter olive-picking and Dionysiac scenes to intense heroic episodes. The meticulous incising and painting of red and white details over the black figures after firing are hallmarks of his style which continued to be admired and followed even as other Attic painters began employing the red-figure technique. Details such as the carefully described quiver and chlamys of the Amazonian warriors testify to the skill of these late archaic workshops. For a similar neck-amphora attributed to the Antimenes Painter, see the Beazley Archive Pottery Database (Inv. no. 320046).